Hackers take over UN site; ‘support’ IS

The website of the United Nations in Cambodia was hijacked yesterday by hackers pledging their support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The group, calling themselves MexicanHackers, posted the black flag of the Islamic State (IS) to the hacked site along with text proclaiming its allegiance to the group, which has taken over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in the past two years. “We support the Islamic State . . . A message to America and the Allies,” the hackers wrote.

Emails sent to addresses the group posted on the UN website went unanswered.

Along with the messages of support for IS, the hackers posted a picture featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon parodying the three wise monkeys of the Japanese folk religion Koshin.

A spokesperson for the UN said that it was “working to address the issue right now”.

The UN has held IS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, responsible for war crimes and other human rights abuses, which Amnesty International has said are occurring on a “historic scale”.